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What is with every MMO being a cartoon?
virtualfog
Member Posts: 92
Are they just trying to apeal to the anime crowd and kids?
I really don't understand this.
Do not try to be a great gamer, just be a gamer. Cause, I don't care how good you are anyway.
Comments
Because its hard to make a mmo that looks realistic and still runs well on aged hardware?
It depends what you're talking about. Many F2P games do have the cartoon-y, anime appearance--but they're typically produced by Asian companies who are targeting their primary audience: the Eastern demographics. And as another member mentioned, it's easier to run those games on older hardware. If you're playing a F2P, you probably don't have the most hardcore computer ever. :-D
Look at the company producing the game and look at the target audience. WoW, though a bit cartoon-y, isn't really anime. LotRO, obviously taking from the rich world created by Tolkien, isn't really cartoon-y or anime. WAR, for the most part, isn't as well. These were produced by Western companies. Now, compare that to FFXI or Aion--both made by Eastern companies.
If you want less cartoons/anime, look where the game is coming from. Like I said, if you're looking at F2P games, a lot of them are from Asian companies, and thus you get an influx of that genre in the F2P market.
You're talking about the F2P model right? I can give you a list of non-anime inspired titles, most are not F2P. I hardly know of any P2P that are anime, unless you would consider FFXI to be anime, but that doesn't even come close to any of the F2P games.
To have it appeal more to the kidlets and to keep system requirements down. We need mmos that appeal more to the 25+ crowd.
1. More universally enjoyable of possible artistic formats.
2. Ages well.
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc.
We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be.
So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away.
- MMO_Doubter
You can hardly say that every MMO is cartoon like. One doesn't have to look all that hard to find games that go for realisim, Age of Conan for example.
However more styleized graphics age better (since they make no pretension at realisim), run on a much wider variety of machines, and are probably easier to implement freeing up more developer time for other features.
It doesn't matter how pretty your game is if it takes a cutting edge computer and heavy instancing to get it to run as AoC showed us.
If I were to make an MMO, I'd probably try to lean towards that art (Allows for better performance, perhaps less server side lag).
But then again, I won't make them look like midget douchebags.
1. Not every MMO is being a Cartoon. Many are and Many arn't
2. Perhaps you need to look at other MMO's?
Man, I need my bugs bunny mmo fix. Oops! Hope I didn't give Warner Bros any ideas...!
Seriously though, its an art style, part of it is demographics, part of it is certainly a stylized cartoony look is easier on the GPU. I think it works in some games, but absolutely not all of them...
Art style has nothing to do with how well (or bad) it will run on a system. I see what the OP is saying. I would like to see more "realism" rather than the kiddy cartoon art styles too.
Honestly, as a 30 year old gamer, the cartoony graphics don't bother me at all. I have imagination enough that I can immerse myself in any world. Doesn't really matter what it looks like.
Actually, I prefer the more toony graphics, because there's never any doubt as to whether or not my system can run them. In fact, I like knowing that everyone else can run the game smoothly too. I mean, what kills immersion more toony graphics or people running around (and constantly complaining) about lag issues? nothing says "hey this is just a game" like watching people rubberband.
Has anyone else noticed that a lot of the more "realistic" looking games tend to suck? That's not really a coincidence. Once you use a good chunk of your resources on graphics, that's less you have to use on actual content.
Just saying....
Of course the art style has an effect on the performance of the game. Cartoonish graphics usually have lower polygon counts because they don't need to be as detailed. If the game were more focused toward realism, it would require very high polygon counts in the models to accomplish the level of detail expected, which would in turn require a graphics card capable of rendering those additional polygons. Lower polygon models = blockier looking = less realistic looking = cartoonish looking. That's one of the reasons WoW, with its lame (imo) graphics is so popular. The models are so simplistic that the game can be run on a calculator or cellphone (literally has been run on a cellphone - look it up). The lower the detail of the models, the more people can play your game without their computers causing them trouble.
Of course the art style has an effect on the performance of the game. Cartoonish graphics usually have lower polygon counts because they don't need to be as detailed. If the game were more focused toward realism, it would require very high polygon counts in the models to accomplish the level of detail expected, which would in turn require a graphics card capable of rendering those additional polygons. Lower polygon models = blockier looking = less realistic looking = cartoonish looking. That's one of the reasons WoW, with its lame (imo) graphics is so popular. The models are so simplistic that the game can be run on a calculator or cellphone (literally has been run on a cellphone - look it up). The lower the detail of the models, the more people can play your game without their computers causing them trouble.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. Its all about Polygon count. But we're not talking "Photo realistic" here. Yes, that would demand a vast amount of....as you say. I don't think the OP is talking about Photo Realism so much as a more realistic "art style" (rather than Anime or over sized cartoonish figures). There is a difference betwen Photo Realism, and Realism.
As others have already pointed out, its all about making the game playable on older machines. Most people would rather play a game that runs smooth on their old system rather than spend money upgrading just to play a better looking game.
Look at the most popular game on the market today....its probably one of the worst looking MMOs out, but millions still play it. AoC is probably the best looking game on the market right now and it lags so bad its pretty much unplayable with just a couple of groups of people around.
Of course the art style has an effect on the performance of the game. Cartoonish graphics usually have lower polygon counts because they don't need to be as detailed. If the game were more focused toward realism, it would require very high polygon counts in the models to accomplish the level of detail expected, which would in turn require a graphics card capable of rendering those additional polygons. Lower polygon models = blockier looking = less realistic looking = cartoonish looking. That's one of the reasons WoW, with its lame (imo) graphics is so popular. The models are so simplistic that the game can be run on a calculator or cellphone (literally has been run on a cellphone - look it up). The lower the detail of the models, the more people can play your game without their computers causing them trouble.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. Its all about Polygon count. But we're not talking "Photo realistic" here. Yes, that would demand a vast amount of....as you say. I don't think the OP is talking about Photo Realism so much as a more realistic "art style" (rather than Anime or over sized cartoonish figures). There is a difference betwen Photo Realism, and Realism.
I think this guy understand exactly what I mean as well as the poster following this quoted post.
Look I understand the idea that not everyone has the most outstanding system with an ATI 5770 HD card or better, i7 CPU, and 30mb or better DL speed. But for once I would love to see what these people can do if they 'assumed' everyone had a hardcore system, just for show. I want to 'see' what you really can do.
This whole problem with everyone needing to be able to run the game bugs me, maybe conan is where I should spend some time and run that on max graphics. But I do foresee the future of virtual worlds becoming ultra realistic in under 10 years time.
I think WoW does have lowsy graphics due to the limitation on poiy's and the need to increase client side performance. The terrible thing about WoW is that it's wall of text questing and gear progression is outdated to name a few things besides cartoon like images.
Do not try to be a great gamer, just be a gamer. Cause, I don't care how good you are anyway.
Of course the art style has an effect on the performance of the game. Cartoonish graphics usually have lower polygon counts because they don't need to be as detailed. If the game were more focused toward realism, it would require very high polygon counts in the models to accomplish the level of detail expected, which would in turn require a graphics card capable of rendering those additional polygons. Lower polygon models = blockier looking = less realistic looking = cartoonish looking. That's one of the reasons WoW, with its lame (imo) graphics is so popular. The models are so simplistic that the game can be run on a calculator or cellphone (literally has been run on a cellphone - look it up). The lower the detail of the models, the more people can play your game without their computers causing them trouble.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. Its all about Polygon count. But we're not talking "Photo realistic" here. Yes, that would demand a vast amount of....as you say. I don't think the OP is talking about Photo Realism so much as a more realistic "art style" (rather than Anime or over sized cartoonish figures). There is a difference betwen Photo Realism, and Realism.
I think this guy understand exactly what I mean as well as the poster following this quoted post.
Look I understand the idea that not everyone has the most outstanding system with an ATI 5770 HD card or better, i7 CPU, and 30mb or better DL speed. But for once I would love to see what these people can do if they 'assumed' everyone had a hardcore system, just for show. I want to 'see' what you really can do.
This whole problem with everyone needing to be able to run the game bugs me, maybe conan is where I should spend some time and run that on max graphics. But I do foresee the future of virtual worlds becoming ultra realistic in under 10 years time.
I think WoW does have lowsy graphics due to the limitation on poiy's and the need to increase client side performance. The terrible thing about WoW is that it's wall of text questing and gear progression is outdated to name a few things besides cartoon like images.
Check out Age or Conan or Vanguard. People want massive games with high population. By making a game only a few can run, you limit your potential for that
look at original half-life or Quake 2 - low poly realism. Not saying we should go that far back, but yeah, you can get "realism" with relatively low polygon count...
I am playing EVE and it's alright... level V skills are a bit much.
You all need to learn to spell.
quit playing asian games then. anime is bigger than religion there
plenty of realistic MMOS in western development, play one of them
Cartoony MMORPGs are easier to create (and thus cheaper to develope). Also they age less faster graphically wise (you can still say after a lot of years "well it's supposed to look unrealistic!". Also the more cartoony MMORPGs are out there, the cheaper the newer ones are to make, since you have to think less of how to make stuff yourself but simply can check out how the others did it. Also I assume that cartoony MMORPGs appeal a larger crowd than realistic ones. Show teenagers a well made cartoony one and a well made realistic one, and most will choose the cartoony one.
But thankfully not all MMORPGs follow that trend.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Three factors are at work here:
The cultural influence of the Orient (we are not talking about India etc here) means anime style is a must with them.
Designers like cartoon style because it causes less lag than more realistic graphics.
Cartoons are taking over, how many kids films come out these days which are not a cartoon? MMO's want to appeal to the low end of the age demographic, so cartoons it is.
Are people seriously still going on about this? Every game looks like a cartoon. FFS, shut up.
Depends on the target audience for one.
The other aspect involves this shift into more stylized graphics and design. There was a race to reach realism in the past with 3D software, once they achieved that the new thing is stylized graphics. Texture work is very time consuming, its not easy to make good textures for a realistic game either. By having more stylized graphics (aka what you call cartoon), not only the appeal reach a wider audience but it becomes easier to develop for the artists.
I personally like stylized realism myself, but can understand the reasoning behind "cartoon" graphics which in the industry are considered "less expensive", not just in money but also in resources needed for a game.
Are people seriously still going on about this? Every game looks like a cartoon. FFS, shut up.
Thanks for your trolling comment. Instead of add anything constructive you have left me no choice but to /facepalm
Do not try to be a great gamer, just be a gamer. Cause, I don't care how good you are anyway.
I prefer anime style (By anime I mean aion or similar style not fluffy things and pink) rather then realistic style.
Does that make me a kid? no shesh people just because you don't like something you have to spout out shit on others that may enjoy it.